We are baby boomers privileged to enjoy our dream of early retirement while traveling full-time. We recently traded our 2005 37' Allegro Bay for a 2015 DRV Tradition fifth wheel being towed by a 2015 Silverado 3500HD Duramax dually. We are in our ninth year of being on the road. We invite you to join us as we explore this amazing country. and navigate the full-time RV lifestyle. Our heartfelt thanks to our soldiers and their families for their sacrifices to ensure our freedom so that we can pursue our dream.

January 27, 2010

Greek Boat Puzzle

Today I found a really neat website where we can upload one of our own pictures and make it into a jigsaw puzzle that you can complete on line. Our first endeavor is of the Greek boats we found in Tarpon Springs, FL.

Click on the arrow below to solve the puzzle. (Note: each puzzle piece is in the correct placement to be used. There's no need to rotate any of the pieces.)

January 26, 2010

Tarpon Springs, FL

We went to Tarpon Springs last year, and since it is one of Paul's favorite places, we were thrilled when our friends from up north, Barb and Kent, were interested in going this year. Click here to read about last year's trip to Tarpon Springs. This year, the day was cloudy with a chance of rain, but at least it was warm.

Tarpon Springs is a quaint, Greek community located a few miles up the Anclote River from the Gulf of Mexico. It is a little over an hour southwest of Bushnell.

Tarpon Springs was originally founded in the late 1800s as a location for winter homes for wealthy northerners. Sponge beds were discovered in the Gulf of Mexico, and a sponge-diving industry soon began to develop. Greek divers were recruited and began arriving in large numbers in the early 1900s. Today, Tarpon Springs has the highest percentage of Greek-Americans of any city in the United States.

The sponge industry was booming by the 1930s and early 1940s, but an algae bloom in 1947 decimated the sponge beds in the region of the Gulf around Tarpon Springs. Most of the sponge boats switched to fishing and shrimping, and the sponge docks and sponge exchanges were converted to tourist activities like shops, museums and fishing cruises. Although there has been some recovery of the sponge industry, most of the sponges in the shops today are imported.

In spite of being primarily a tourist area, Tarpon Springs has maintained a picturesque, old-world charm. In addition to fishing and sightseeing cruises, the waterfront is lined with boats decorated with sponges like the one in the photo below.

Commercial fishing boats are docked on the opposite side of the river.

We went to Tarpon Springs on a Saturday and happened to hit a day when part of the main street along the waterfront was blocked off for a craft show. Unfortunately for the vendors, there wasn't a big turnout with the cloudy weather.

As we have said before, we don't have room to buy much at flea markets and craft shows, but we enjoy looking. We also like walking down the picturesque main street in Tarpon Springs with its shops and restaurants predominantly painted crisp blue and white.

There was even a man and his young daughter providing entertainment. The girl played the drums, played the harmonica and sang harmony. She was quite talented.

Along the way, Margery and Barb stopped to check out sponges. There are numerous types, each with a recommended use from car washing to makeup application.

Paul, on the other hand, stopped to check out the Greek pastries on display at a restaurant bake shop.

Walking down the sidewalks of Tarpon Springs includes receiving personal invitations from almost every restaurant in the town to come in to dine.

However, we had already planned to return to our favorite from last year. Costas Restaurant is about a block and a half off the main street and offers some great lunch specials. We stopped for a tourist photo with a fiberglass shark on our way through a shopping plaza that is in what used to be the sponge exchange.

At Costas, Paul had a chicken souvlaki sandwich (marinated chicken with yogurt/cucumber sauce, tomato and onions wrapped in pita) while everyone else had gyros (beef/lamb with yogurt/cucumber, tomato and onions wrapped in pita). The lunch special we chose comes with a Greek salad that includes potato salad buried under the greens. Everything, including the baklava that was also part of the special, was delish.

With our bellies full, we headed back to the motor home. Barb and Kent left for their next destination the following morning.

When we got back, Margery was excited to find the $200 gas gift card she won as a voter of Roadtrip Journal's December Readers Choice Contest had arrived in the mail. Roadtrip Journal is an online magazine providing first-hand accounts and recommendations by other Road Warriors.

We'll be putting that gas card to good use once Paul finishes some projects here at the motor home. We'll be reporting on them soon.

January 20, 2010

Blue Spring State Park, FL

Our friends from up north arrived, and warmer weather from the south made its appearance about the same time. Margery and Barb were in a Bible study back in Pittsburgh in the 1970s. Although Barb and her husband Kent moved away from Pittsburgh many years ago, we have remained in touch with them.

After they got settled in their motel across the street, Barb and Kent came over to Blueberry Hill where we caught up with old times over dinner at our motor home.

Although the next day was partly to mostly cloudy, we all decided to get out and enjoy some sightseeing after the recent cold weather. We have been wanting to see manatees; and we recently heard about Blue Spring State Park, which is supposed to be one of the best places in Florida to see them.

Blue Spring State Park is located near Orange City, FL, which is close to New Smyrna Beach over on the east coast where we stayed in December; however, we didn't know about the spring at the time. There are places like Crystal River which is closer to where we are staying now in Bushnell where we could see manatees, but Blue Spring sounded so good we decided to make the 80-mile drive there instead. We weren't disappointed. The photo below shows just some of the large number of manatees at Blue Spring.

Although Blue Spring Run is only about one third of a mile long before if flows into the St. Johns River, the count of manatees in the run the day we were there was 192. The count was down a little from a couple of days earlier because the weather had warmed up a little and a larger number of the Manatees were spending a little more time out in the St. Johns River rather in the warmer spring run. The St. Johns River starts near Melbourne, FL, and flows south to north reaching the Atlantic at Jacksonville.

Manatees, which are mammals that are distant relatives of elephants, weigh 800 to 1200 pounds and grow to be 9 or 10 feet long with a maximum length of about 12 feet. Females are slightly larger than males. The next photo shows a larger manatee. The green tint on its back and tail is algae.

Manatees have a low metabolism, and therefore can't stand cold water temperatures. In fact, they can die if exposed to water temperatures below 60 degrees for extended periods. Manatees inhabit the shallow coastal regions of the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic to Georgia, although manatees have been spotted as far north as Cape Cod. The manatees in Florida and the Caribbean are known as West Indian manatees. There are also Amazonian and West African manatees.

Manatees are listed as an endangered species. Although sharks and alligators are potential predators, the manatees' biggest threat is from humans. Boat strikes are the biggest single cause of manatee deaths. The slow-moving, curious nature of the manatees along with heavy coastal development in Florida cause numerous manatee injuries. Many manatees like the ones toward the left in the photo below have scars from boat propellers.

Although it's difficult to get accurate counts of the population of manatees, there are believed to be 1000 to 3000 of them in Florida. Unfortunately, it appears the number may be declining. One thing that slows population growth is the fact that manatees have a gestation period of 12 months and adult females can have only one calf about every two years. It takes 12 to 18 months for the calves to be weaned. The next photo shows a female with her calf.

A walkway parallels the one-third mile length of Blue Spring Run. The next photo shows us along the walkway. That's Barb, Kent and their Cairns terrier McKenzie on the right.

Along the way, Spanish moss-draped live oak trees frame views of the run with groups of manatees resting in the shallow water. Manatees must surface periodically to breath. They can remain submerged for up to 20 minutes at a time.

Some of the things that make Blue Spring such a good place to see manatees are the clarity of the water and the fact it is so shallow. Manatees are herbivores and eat various types of seaweed, grasses and algae. Although the 72 degree water of the spring attracts large numbers of manatees, there isn't much for them to eat in the short spring run. Therefore, the manatees must venture out into the colder St. Johns River to feed, then return to the spring run to warm up. That means there are usually some manatees moving slowly up and down the run which allows visitors to get a better look at them.

Speaking of there not being much to eat in the spring run, the manatees in the next photo are doing their best to find something. They were rolling over on their backs to nibble the tree roots hanging down into the water.

We strolled up the walkway all the way the head spring. About 100 million gallons a day of 72 degree water flows from the dark-colored fissure.

Scuba diving down into the spring is permitted, except in winter when manatees are present in the run. The water flows from a water-filled, narrow cave that is over 110 feet deep. Swimming, tubing, canoeing and kayaking are also permitted in the run in summer.

The members of the Louis Thursby family were the first permanent settlers in the Blue Spring area. They bought 122 acres and a three-room log cabin in 1856. In 1872, they began construction of a larger house on an old Indian mound along the spring run. The house is now part of the state park.

The Thursbys also built a landing along the St. Johns River, and by the 1880s there were up to 5 steamboats a day carrying freight and tourists stopping there. A horse-drawn, narrow-gauge railway was built to Orange City in 1881 to carry freight (mostly oranges) and passengers.

By the late 1800s, Henry Flagler had built his railway down the east coast of Florida from Jacksonville to Key West, and riverboat traffic began to decrease. There was a severe freeze in central Florida in 1895, and many orange trees were killed. Most orange groves were replanted farther south. The Thursbys switched to tourism taking advantage of the beauty of the spring and the fishing opportunities along the St. Johns River. The state acquired the land around the spring as a manatee refuge in 1972.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Blue Spring State Park. It was interesting to be able to see manatees fairly close-up and to be able to learn more about them. We have more sightseeing planned, so stay tuned.

January 18, 2010

Even though we're not in the market for a new RV, the big RV show in Tampa seems to be too much for Paul to resist. He looks for any excuse to go and 'research' new Tiffin motor homes.

The show is only about an hour away at the Florida State Fairgrounds north of Tampa, so it's easy for us to get there by the time they open at 9:00 AM. Although there were lines at the ticket windows, the lines were fairly short. The grounds and buildings are large, so by the time we got inside it looked like there were hardly any people there.

Since our motor home is built on a Workhorse chassis, we stopped by the Workhorse booth on our way through the first building to see what was new. Their display was somewhat disappointing and looked a bit sparse because they only had one chassis on display. It was a new, front-engine diesel W20D chassis, which is specifically designed to enable manufacturers to build high fuel mileage, somewhat smaller Class A motor homes. Higher fuel mileage is good; but as full-timers, the smaller chassis isn't of much interest to us.

From Workhorse, we headed straight to the Tiffin display at the far side of the fairgrounds. The entrance to the Tiffin area is shown in the photo below.

Tiffin introduced a new, smaller diesel pusher motor home called the Breeze at the RVIA Show in Louisville, KY back in December. The RVIA Show is for the RV trade only (dealers, manufacturers and suppliers) and is not open to the public. We were disappointed they didn't have the Breeze prototype at Tampa; but apparently Tiffin doesn't have all the design details worked out yet, and it's not ready to be introduced to the public.

They did, however, have several Phaetons on display. As full-timers, the Breeze is going to be too small for us, but Paul wanted to see it out of curiosity to see how Tiffin plans to handle the new class of smaller motor homes that seems to be gaining in popularity. If we can ever afford a new motor home, it is most likely to be a Phaeton because of the increase in cargo carrying capacity, so that's where our real interest lies. We enjoy hanging out in the Tiffin display models and raving about the Tiffin brand to other 'lookers.' The next photo shows Paul standing in front of a 36-foot Phaeton.

In addition to several Phaetons, Tiffin had a Zephyr at the show. Zephyr is Tiffin's top-of-the-line model that lists for almost $500,000. We normally don't even look at any of the luxury models; but this time curiosity got the better of us, and we went inside. This particular Zephyr was a 43-footer with a rear bath. Notice the ornate woodwork and the dual, above-counter sinks. Margery is happy she doesn't have to keep that kind of woodwork clean!

From the Tiffin display, we meandered over to the vendor area to look at RV accessories. You never know what new, clever thing they may be offering to make life aboard an RV easier. By this time, it was late morning, and the crowd was growing noticeably.

There is a second vendor area near the exit, and by the time we got there, it was getting very crowded. We need to make a mental note in case we go to the show again next year to do the vendor areas first because the the aisles aren't very wide and when it gets crowded later in the morning, it's hard to make your way through all the people. We didn't see any RV accessories that caught our eye, but Paul picked up some oil and a filter for our generator at the Onan booth on our way out. He'll be doing an oil change before we hit the road in March.

It was after noon when we left the show, and we had a late lunch at Qdoba Mexican Grill north of Tampa before making a couple of other stops on our way back to the motor home.

The weather is starting to improve, so we'll be doing some sightseeing in the near future. Look for our next post.

January 12, 2010

Along with much of the rest of the country (and many parts of the world - a number of people recently died in Great Britain due to abnormally cold weather), Florida experienced colder than normal temperatures over the past two weeks. Records for cold temperatures were broken all over the state. So much for global warming.

During past winters we spent in Florida, we have always hit one or two cold spells with a few nights down as low as the mid 20s. But this year, with the exception of one night when it was about 38 degrees, we have had almost two weeks straight with nighttime temperatures at or below freezing. We had one day when the temperatures didn't get out of the 30s in Bushnell; and there were several nights when it hit 22 degrees.

The farms and orange groves here in Florida are struggling to keep their crops alive. Oranges are OK as long as it doesn't get below 28 degrees for more than four hours. If it gets colder than that, they sometimes spray the trees with water to form an insulating layer of ice. If oranges freeze, they can still be used for juice, but they have to be processed within a few days. When there is a hard freeze all the processing plants are jammed, and they can't process all the oranges in time.

The landscape nurseries, like the one in the photo below, also spray plants with water during a freeze. This photo was taken a little later in the morning after things began to thaw, but ice still clings to the fence and grass in the foreground.

Crops like corn and tomatoes can't stand frost, much less a freeze, and frost can even occur at temperatures above freezing if the air is very clear and still. Fortunately, the vegetable farms are located a little farther south of where we are, but the cold extended all the way down to Miami. There was a story on the news about farmers hiring helicopters to fly over their fields to try to blow warmer air from aloft down onto their crops.

Just as the temperature looked like it was going to start to moderate (we actually hit a high of 60 degrees one day), another cold front came through with precipitation during the day and overnight. The next morning there was even snow and freezing rain almost all the way down to Orlando. Bushnell is a little northwest of Orlando, so we were included in that area. Yes, that is sleet that has collected at the base of our car windshield...

...and on the cover for our bikes.

These unusually low temperatures have curtailed our sightseeing, but Paul made good use of our time indoors to do an indoor repair project. He had been wanting to replace some discolored caulk around the kitchen sink. When he noticed a few drops of water under the sink, he realized the seal around the drain in the bottom of one bowl of the sink was leaking, and he decided to repair the leak and recaulk the sink sooner rather than later. As you can see, removing the sink required dragging everything out from under the sink, which made quite a mess in the confines of the motor home.

It's been two years since Margery had partial knee replacements in both knees. The mobility she gained has truly been a blessing. This fall, however, she began to experience pain around both her knees. She knew the knee joints felt good, but was perplexed by the sometimes bothersome pain. A visit with the orthopedic surgeon last week confirmed that all was still well with her knees. The cause of the pain is unknown...bursitis? tendonitis? Bottom line is the knees will never be as good as God made them originally. It is what it is. So we will enjoy her mobility, take it easy as needed, and be grateful for the blessings of each day.

The forecast is finally predicting somewhat warmer temperatures. We have friends from up north stopping by in a few days, so we'll probably schedule some sightseeing with them. Plus, we have another motor home improvement project in the works, so keep looking for our posts.